White cultural producers are fighting to retain their privileges: to date they still occupy dominant positions in the German art industry and therefore presumably experience the mere existence of political correctness as a threat.

Dodua Otoo’s writing is efficient and brutal with a journal-like quality. This writing style effortlessly explores complex issues like white supremacy in intimate relationships, cultural colonialism, immigration, the mine-field of divorce and universal human failure. None of these issues are at the center of the story, yet are weaved through everything that happens. Her narrative gives us a sneak peek into the unsaid and often felt universe of a black woman in Berlin.

Last week’s premiere event was a great inauguration. “The Politics of Community” was the overarching theme, but after a wonderful introduction to give some academic context, Taylor expertly guided our discussion forth and back to other areas of concern. Topics ranged from politically correct vocabulary (one beautiful Black women rejects both terms “race” and “mixed” to describe herself), to how German administrative forms fail to reflect the diverse background of some Berliners (how can you communicate that your place of birth, ethnicity and place of residence are are varied when there is only one box to check?) to how the emphasis on Germany’s Nazi past leaves little room to address the atrocities of colonialism that foreshadowed it.

My mind is a whirl of movies and my pupils are still dilated. Most of the filmmakers in the Berlinale Blackness films were coming from outside of the culture that they wanted to represent. This means that they would be naturally attracted to the most striking elements of the society that they were discovering and may not have had the cultural fluency to appreciate the subtler aspects of that society.

Many renowned artists were racists and/or sexists. This is not your fault. But it becomes your problem, too, if you elect to continue their legacy as if they had not been dehumanising the majority of the people on the planet.

Today, Sweden got put on the map with a viral-ready, documented display of obvious racism and obliviousness. Source The whole scene can’t get worse. It is like a racist nightmare: They are all laughing! It is like they ...

Sometimes I don’t know what I dislike more, being proud of your culture or NOT being proud. It reminds me of what Hamlet said, “to be or not to be, that is the question.” This issue comes up in my mind every time I sp...

Hipster has pretty much turned into a meaningless term that people use to describe cool-looking people that annoy them. It is assumed that these people have nothing going on besides their next American Apparel order, making ...

“Where the White Women At?” Just about the only black ass you’ll ever see in Kaarst, NRW showed up on a political ad for the Green Party. And of course it had a white woman’s hands all over it. As report...

Lasers, the new album by Lupe Fiasco came at a hard time in my life emotionally. I never thought that the album would be relevant to me emotionally when I started to listen but it was because Lupe has chosen to be honest ab...

You ever have those moments when you’re in a foreign country, surrounded by foreign people (to you) speaking a foreign language, and then you see something that makes you think “I traveled all this way to get away from ...

Let me take you to a time before Auto-tune, when this crew of fresh-faced teens from the Boston projects first came together. Starting with Bobby Brown, Michael Bivins, and Ricky Bell, the group would then be joined by best hom...

“Art and politics are my two favorite things in the world,” said my German artist friend a week ago upon returning from the Pope demonstrations. At first, the statement confused me. To me, art was something that transcended...

After six years of living in Berlin, I thought maybe it was time I check out the Christopher Street Day Parade. I went pretty late and I think maybe I missed most of the assless pants and latex. Apart from the music trucks whic...